Sorry, I am a little "late to the party" on this one, but I just came across your "Where's Canada's Web 2.0 ..." and it struck a cord with me, and I wanted to comment further. First, I must agree that the fact things are a little quieter north of the border on the Web2.0 hype, is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I would expect nothing else given Canadian culture. I do, however, share Mark's concerns over the apparent lack of activity/energy that I am seeing. With some notable exceptions, mentioned in previous blog comments, we are not seeing the level of energy that I believe is going to be necessary to sustain any kind of leadership that we have had in telecom related industries in the past. The lack of activity in Silicon Valley North is particularly troublesome. In a 'town' where tens of thousands of people are still employed in technology development, we can only muster a handful of individuals that are participating in this important evolution of communication technology. As the value in the network continues to migrate away from the 'piping'/ infrastructure (whether wireline or wireless), the importance of smaller 'application' oriented companies to take up the slack left by the Nortel's of the world, will become increasingly important. I would argue that innovation rarely happens in a vacumm, and that effective communities of inspired technologists can be the most important catylist for innovation. I believe that in Canada today we lack communities of critical mass necessary to be leaders. IMHO, there is a desperate need to strengthen the broader community of tech zealots in places like Ottawa. This wasn't as necessary in the past, given the size and dynamics of companies like Nortel (Bell-Northern Research) and former Newbridge. Unfortunately, a number of factors contributed to the loss of that sense of community and dynamic. It is important that the community not be based narrowly on some specific technology, but rather on the broad set of technologies related to computing and telecommunications. This, in turn, can help create a crucible for product and business innovation. I am encouraged by initiatives like OGRE, being organized by the folks at Jaded Pixel. In addition to this type of technology focused group, I believe that a broader based tech community is also required. Isn't this an opportunity to effectively exploit the technologies that represent Web2.0? Afterall, isn't Web2.0 in large part about social networks and community? I am interested in knowing whether others see the need/benefit for a community initiative of this sort, or if they feel that something already exists that meets the needs.